Cleaning composition



Patented Apr. 1936 v UNITED srAr E's PATENT OFFICE No 1mm. Awl catlon September 26,1933,

Serial Naoaoasa This invention relates to detergent aids known in the-trade as cleaningpowders. and tomethodsof preparing the same. 1'

An object of the present invention is the pro- 5 vision of a cleaning powder. of new and superior merit for general purpose use but more specifically adapted for cleaning fine surfaces such. as those ofwindow glass, modern bathroom equipment, and the enameled and lacquered appurtenances to themodern kitchen. In this connection it is significant that in the face of enormous advance in the development of surface finishes, the past twenty years have seen practically no advance in the means for their cleaning and preservation.

Cleaning or scouring powders consist typically in two essentials, one in the form of solubles comprising detergents such as soap, sodium carbonate and borax or reactive chemicals the other in the form of inert solids usually in the form of grit to contribute a scouring action.

To fulfill its scouring requirement the grit, usually constituting seventy'to ninety-five-percent of the total, must possess a resistive strength or hardness comparable to that of the surface to be cleaned or at least-of the coating to be removed, softer bodies tending to break down and slime rather than scour. In meeting this along with other requirements the range of materials used narrows down essentially to volcanic ash or pumice, crushed silica, crushed feldspar, and

diatomaceous earth. Whether used in its natural condition, as in the case of volcanic ash and diatomaceous earth, or crushed to the required fineness, as in the case of quartz or feldspar, the grit in all instances is more or less sharply angular; and in consequence its functioning as a scouring agent is in the nature of a scraping or scratching action. In an eifort to minimize the 40 damaging effect of scraping or scratching action,

the practice has been to reduce the grit to a fineness such that scratching is as imperceptible as possible. For use on metal it is necessary to go to extreme fineness, and in this connection diato- 45 maceous earth, a form of silica characterized by the microscopic fineness of its particle size, commonly has been used as the scouring agent. In cleaners compounded withv special regard to use on surfaces such as window glass, an air floated 50 grit 01' minus 250 to 300 mesh, depending some- 55 imize effects rather than to remedy the cause.

11 a bumng wheel rotated at 150 n.1 M. and

bearing on a plate glass or porcelain enamel surface-at a pressure of pounds per square inch,

lsfed with crushed quartz, volcanic ash, or crushed feldspar of the fineness regularly used, it will presentlybe notedthat in the case of the plate glasssurface the circle under the buifing wheel takes on a foggy aspect when examined in,

be dispersed in a gas, such as air, and carried in dispersed form' into and through a zone maintained at a temperature at or above the melting temperature of the material, thus causing the individual particles to melt and again solidify while suspended in the gas, it will be noted on examinaticles instead of being sharply angular are smoothly spherical. viously described, are repeated using the spherulitized equivalent of the original materials, it will be noted that no fogging or dulling of the surface develops. Also, if one of the plate glass specimens usedin the earlier test be mounted with the buffing wheel covering half of the fogged circle, and the experiment carried forward as before but using the spherulitized analogue, it will be noted in the course of an hour, if the earlier abrasion has. not been carried beyond the point of mere fogging, that the fogging will disappear and'the original plate glass lustre will be restored.

Comparative tests serve to indicate that the gain in smoothness is not at the expense of any appreciable loss in efficiency. The function of the grit is to promote the solvent action of the detergents or chemicals and this the spherular bodies do to'equal, if not better, advantage, precisely as the rounded corrugations of the scrubbing board more than fulfill the function once crudely served employed in cleaning powders and kindred cleaning compositions. In effecting this spherulitization, I suspend the finely divided particles of the selected f iller (be it glass, volcanic ash, quartz or other conventional abrasive component of a cleaning composition) in a gaseous medium,'e. g.,

If now the tests, as pretion under the microscope that the resulting para air, whereby a dispersion of the particles is produced, and pass the suspension through a zone of heating at or above the fusing temperature of the particular mineral, the suspended particles thereafter being caused to solidify while still suspended in the medium. In this fashion the tiny individual particles of mineral 'fillerfuse, globularize, andsolidify as individual spherical particles without any material agglomeration: Accordingly, the individual particles are made dense and truly spherical, and possess a diameter which is smaller than the effective cross sectional dimensions of the angular particles prior to spherulitization.

In-at least one important connection spherulitizing gives rise to marked advantages as an adjunct to cleaning as well as to smoothness. The so-called mechanics soaps, like cleaning powders, consist in soap loaded with a scouring agent, commonly volcanic ash. In this connection spherular bodies possess a freedom of movement in and out of the pore recesses of the skin to far better advantage than the crude angular grit heretofore used. The great objection to mechanics soap, too, is that its use irritates and roughens the skin adding to the dimculty of keeping it clean: use of spherulitized filler in a mechanics soap obviates this disadvantage. Again, it should be noted that a cleaning composition in which the filler material is in spherulitized form is less I harmful if accidentally gotten into the eyes than is a similar composition containing filler material in the form of angular grit.

I have found that a further advantage of spherulitized filler material in a cleaning composition resides in the fact that such composition is much more readily rinsedfrom a surface than is a similar composition but containing filler material in the form of angular grit: in the case of the latter composition there is a tendency to drag, due to the physical properties of its angular'filler material, whereas in the case of a composition containing spherulitized filler there is no tendency to drag on, or cling to, the surface cleansed therewithwhen removing the composition by simple rinsing.

The following specific composition is given as being an illustrative embodiment of the present invention:

Percent spherulitized volcanic ash, fine air floated--- 63 spherulitized volcanic ash, 150 mesh 30 Soap 7 ubility. The detergent component may be any alkali metal salt of a soap-forming fatty acid, or a mixture of such salts; e. g., any common household soap. Instead of household soap in the above composition I may use a corresponding amount of a sodium alkyl sulphate derived from a fatty alcohol: See Chemical 81 Metallurgical Engineering, 40, 249. An advantage arising from the employment of this type of detergent is that it is unaffected by the alkali earths (e. g., CaCOa, MgCOs, etc.) which not infrequently are present in water and which constitute the so-- called hardness in water, tending to impair the detergent properties of an ordinary soap.

I claim:

1. A cleaning composition consisting essentially of a water-soluble detergent component and a hard inert finely divided mineral filler component, characterized in that the said hard mineral filler component consists of spherulitized par- 4. A cleaning composition as defined inv claim 1, being a. powder having the following formula:

Per cent spherulitized filler -material, fine airfioate 73-60 spherulitized filler material, 150 mesh 20-30 Water-soluble saponaceous detergent 7-10 5. Acleaning composition as defined in claim 1, being a powder having the following formula;

Per cent spherulitized volcanic ash, fine air-floated- '7 3-60 spherulitized volcanic ash, 150 mesh 20-30 Soap 7-10 6. A cleaning composition as defined in claim 1, being a powder having the following formula:

1 Per cent spherulitized volcanic ash, fine air floated 63 spherulitized volcanic ash, 150 mesh 30 Soap 7 '7. A cleaning composition as defined in claim 1, being a powder having the following formula:

Per cent spherulitized volcanic ash, fine air-floated 63 spherulitized volcanic ash, 150 mesh 30 An alkali metal salt of an alkyl sulphate derived from a fatty alcohol CHESTER G. GILBERT.. 

